Saturday, December 13, 2008

Writers' Rooms

The Guardian Online has an ongoing series called Writers' Rooms. A simple concept, but interesting--a photo of the featured writer's workspace, plus a short essay by the writer about the room. They've featured contemporary writers, such as Martin Amis and Ian Rankin, and writers who have not used their workspaces in quite a long time, such as Charles Darwin and Jane Austen.

This is writer Marina Warner's space. The untidiness of her workspace looks all to familiar to me, I'm afraid. Although I like to think of it as organized chaos.

One thing that struck me about the rooms featured was how many of them have white walls. Don't know whether the writers find white to be less distracting, or whether they just can't be bothered to think about paint colors....

How encouraging to see someone else's chaos and know that great things come from that very same room. I've never had white walls - for 15 years I lived with (and loved) hot pink, aquamarine, purple - quite lurid but it made me happy and feeling inspired. Not sure what I'll choose for my new house but I'm sure I'll manage the chaotic look with no trouble at all. Happy holidays...